News from the Heights

Commissioner for Patents to Deliver Fall Madden Lecture at Le Moyne College

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (For Immediate Release) … Margaret A. Focarino, commissioner for patents for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (U.S.P.T.O.), will deliver the Madden Lecture at Le Moyne College on Thursday, Oct. 25, at 6 p.m. Her talk is titled “Leadership Strategies for a 21st Century Patent Office” and will take place in Grewen Auditorium.

Patent protection is critical to the economic vitality of global markets. Innovation protected by strong intellectual property rights is one key pillar to the creation of jobs, businesses and investments. Inventors, applicants and investors all look towards the global patenting system for stability and consistency. Focarino will discuss leadership strategies that are creating a high quality and productive 21st Century Patent and Trademark Office.

Prior to being named commissioner in January 2012, Focarino served as deputy commissioner, providing administrative oversight to nine patent technology centers and coordinating patent application studies and re-issues of patents. Focarino began her career with the U.S.P.T.O. in 1977 as a patent examiner. She became a supervisory patent examiner in 1989 and was promoted to senior executive service in 1997.

Well respected by her colleagues, Focarino was honored with the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award in 1993 for her work as a supervisory patent examiner and with the Department of Commerce Silver Medal for Leadership in 2010 for leading a joint task force that developed and implemented the first significant changes to the patent examiner work credit system in more than 30 years.

Focarino earned her undergraduate degree in physics from the State University of New York at Oswego and a Certificate in Advanced Public Management from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Madden Institute for Business Education. For more information, call (315) 445-4786.

ThinkProgress.org includes Le Moyne as one of 11 institutions across the country that "...are taking concrete steps to amend their policies, expand their training programs, and let new students know they want to improve" as it relates to sexual assaults.